The Way Home
by thehero'sdamsel
Summary: Steam Powered Giraffe. After a tour gone wrong, the boys try to find their way home. Too bad trouble just seems to follow them everywhere. Well, hopefully everything turns out for the best.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, so it's been a while since I've put something up here. And I've had this idea for a while, started writing it, and then promptly went about doing other things. So I was hoping to maybe finish this story at some point in the future, but for the time being, I'll put up some of it. Hope you like it. **

The Spine pushed himself upwards, shifting his weight to balance himself on the rickety floor. He brushed off the front of his vest, his photoreceptors quickly spotting his little brothers. HatchWorth wasn't too far off from the silver automaton. He was adjusting his jacket with short, jerky movements. If The Spine didn't know better, he would have thought the youngest robot was glitching. The Jon was farther in the shadows of the dimly lit train car, amusing himself with an odd song as he inspected the new surroundings. So far, so good. Now they just needed to-

"SPINE!" the Spine's eyes widened at the scream and he spun to face the still open rolling door. He flung himself forward, clinging to the metal frame of the door. Outside, Rabbit was desperately trying to keep up with the train. He was using one hand to keep his beloved hat from flying away in the harsh wind. The Spine moved one of his own hands away from the siding to mirror this, holding his own hat in place just in time for a particularly strong gust rushed by.

"S-s-spine!" Rabbit jittered out in freight. The older automaton's leg was shaking violently, causing him to stumble as he chased after the train.

"Rabbit!" the Spine exclaimed. He let go of the doorway completely to lean dangerously forward to offer his now free hand. "Rabbit, take my hand!" Rabbit reached out, desperately trying to close the gap between himself and The Spine. The train bumped, and The Spine lurched with it. He quickly rocked backwards, barely keeping himself from tumbling to the ground.

"The Spine!" He heard HatchWorth shriek from somewhere behind him. Almost instantly, he felt something tugging at the back of his vest, steading him. The Spine gave a slight nod before reaching out again, trusting Hatchy to keep him steady as he leaned out farther than before.

"Come on Rabbit. Just a little more."

"I'm tr-tryin', Spine!" Rabbit shouted back, stubbornly trying to grasp the silver robot's hand. The effort was stopped, however, when a whirring noise started up. If The Spine was human, he would never had heard it over the loud train. The copper 'bot looked up at his younger brothers, startled, as a large billow of steam escaped from the vents on his cheeks. The clockwork robot opened his mouth, as though to shout something up to them, but a loud popping sound cut him off. Rabbit's  
mix-matched eyes widened as he tripped, falling face-first to the ground.

"Rabbit!" The Spine lunged outward, desperately trying to snatch up his brother. But it was too late. The only thing that kept The Spine from hurtling to the Earth like his older brother was HatchWorth, who strain with the effort of keeping the taller automaton upright. It took The Spine a second or two of staring in horror to  
calculate a new plan.

"We have to get back off," he tossed a glance over his shoulder. "Come on bo-"he froze midsentence. "Where's Jon?"

HatchWorth gave The Spine a confused look before turning to look as well. Sure enough, the car was empty aside from the two robots. "He was just here a moment ago?"

"Ok, forget that. Plan B." Spine turned completely around, thinking quickly. "Ok, I'll jump off and help Rabbit. While I'm doing that, you need to go find Jon, ok? And then you need to get off the train as fast as you can. Do you think you can do that, Hatchy?"

HatchWorth was still trying to process the whole thing. "But what about-"

"No time for that!" The Spine cut him off. "The only way to get this fixed is to split up" He moved to place his hands on his youngest brother's shoulders. "I can count on you to do this for me, right Hatchy?" The spine felt a little guilty for playing that card, but it defiantly did the trick. HatchWorth's photoreceptors brightenedconsiderably as he nodded.

"Yes! Of course you can count on me, The Spine." The Spine couldn't help but smile at his eagerness.

"I knew I could." He let go and turned back to the doorway. "Now when you get off, don't stray too far from the tracks, got it? That how we'll find each other later." HatchWorth nodded and murmured a quiet "ok" to let the other robot know he was getting all the instructions. "Now go on. And for goodness sakes, be careful!" And with that, The Spine jumped.


	2. Chapter 2

Rabbit was not, in any sense of the phrase, a happy camper. Sure, breaking down was never fun, but getting separated from his family, and coincidently the only people he had in his life at the moment, was not adding to the fun factor. But anyway, the battered 'bot was currently trying to locate all the parts of his leg that sprung free during his fall. This process was, of course, hindered by the fact that parts of his leg had sprung free. Rabbit had been muttering in annoyance at the parts as though they could hear him and knew fully well what they had caused when he heard The Spine.  
"Rabbit?" the copper robot picked his head up at the curious call. He puffed a sigh of relief when he saw the silver automaton heading toward him, scanning the landscape as he went. He filled his bellows with as much air that they could hold before calling out:  
"OH HEY SPINE!" He added in an excited wave. "Took ya long enough!" Rabbit grinned at The Spine's irritated look (though it was obvious from his quickened gate that he was really relieved) and maneuvered himself into a more comfortable position. After all, now that The Spine was here, he didn't need to do all the work by himself.  
"Be glad I came at all…" The Spine grumbled as he reached the point where Rabbit was. He pause for a moment to take in the situation- hopefully they could fix Rabbit's leg without tools- before setting to work gathering up the remaining parts. Rabbit watched The Spine for a couple moments before turning his attention back to where The Spine had come from.  
"What, did Jon and Hatchy get lo-lost 'long the way or something?" He asked, craning to try to catch sight of the missing boys.  
"Ah, no. There were some…uh… complications…" The Spine said awkwardly, refusing to look up from his work.  
"What do ya mean 'complications'?"  
"HatchWorth and Jon, well they aren't coming….. They are still on the train." There was a pause after this was said; an awkward silence filled only with even more awkward starring. The Spine coughed into his hand- a useless gesture that served no purpose besides filling the silence.  
"Gosh Spine," Rabbit said after a while. "And I thought you were the responsible one!"  
"Hey, now! I _am_ the responsible one!" The Spine exclaimed, feathers obviously ruffled. "Besides, I told Hatchy what do so we can meet up again as fast as possible."  
There was a beat.  
"We're talkin' about the same HatchWorth, right?"

HatchWorth, despite the bleak situation, was delighted. Sure, there were probably many holes in the thrown together plan, but The Spine had come up with it and Hatchy trusted him more than anyone else. Besides, The Spine was counting on him! So he couldn't fail. And maybe if everything went ok, he would get a special Spine-hug! Those were very rare, usually saved for special occasions seeing as Spine wasn't really a touchy-feely kind of guy (that position was already filled by The Jon, thank you very much). But that was beside the point.  
Currently, the youngest Walter was traveling from car to car in search of the missing robot. The Jon had a habit of running off, so this wasn't anything new. He stumbled along, his rusty joints shuttered along with the bumps as he continued his search. It shouldn't take too long to find the Jon, he reasoned. The train only had a couple of empty cars before it reached the ones with people in them.  
"Woah!" the brass bot exclaimed, slamming into a nearby wall as the train hit a bump too fast. He let out a tiny huff of steam and pushed himself back upright. He staggered for a second, his weight nearly dragging him back down as the train shook along its way. He finally managed to get to the door leading to the next car. He threw the door open and let out a heavy sigh. This might take a little longer than he had thought.

As Hatchy made his way into the new car, he heard something. A mumble of mashed up words and near silent curses twisted its way through the half –lit car and into the robot's ear. He tilted his head, eyebrows scrunched together, as he looked around the car, trying to locate the source of the ghostly whispers. It was then that he noticed a figure, a man standing by the open door on the opposite end of the car. He had a look of absolute worry on his face as he dug through a frayed and dirty duffle bag.

Hatchy smiled. Maybe this man had seen Jon? He stumbled his way over as quickly as he could, holding his arms out for balance. When he got close enough, he tapped the man on the shoulder, drawing his attention away from his desperate search. "Excuse me, sir but have you seen-"Hatchy was cut off with a startled shriek, and he flinched backwards. Oh dear, this was a mistake.

The man stumbled back in shock; mouth still a gape from his previous scream. Unfortunately, the door the two had been standing by was still open and as he wrenched away from Hatchworth he slipped. His one foot slid off the little platform between the cars. The man scrambled, blue eyes wide as he scratched the sides of the train in an attempt to drag himself upright. But he only managed to push himself more outwards as he toppled sideways off the train and down the grassy hill, luckily just missing being hit by the wheels.

Hatchy blinked a couple times before rushing forward and glancing out where the man had fallen. "oh my… SORRY ABOUT THAT!" He called out, hoping the wind would carry his apology to the man. He gave a little sigh and shook his head. "Though yelling at me was rather rude…" He muttered to himself before continuing on.

It wasn't much longer after that that Hatchy found The Jon. The little golden bot was giggling at a little butterfly he was attempting to catch. Hatchy smiled fondly and tapped his older brother on the shoulder. The Jon looked up, forgetting about the butterfly for a second as he beamed up at his little brother.

"Oh, heya Hatchy~"

"Yes, hello the Jon, we have to go." Jon looked confused. He opened his mouth to say something but Hatchy cut him off. "Rabbit couldn't get on, so Spine got off and now we have to too, yes?"

"Oh.. oh ok!" Jon nodded, his smile back in place. Hatchy nodded.

"Right, um.. we should go back. I think it would be easier to just go out the car we came in?" Jon nodded and slipped his hand into Hatchy's.

"Alright, let's-"

"And just what do you think you are doing?" The two bots looked up at the sound of the angry voice. A group of three men stood in the doorway of the car. All of them wore harsh faces and were glaring at the two brothers. "I thought they didn't let freaks like you run around here." Jon pouted.

"Hey, that's not very nice!" the golden bot exclaimed, sticking a hand on his hip. The man closest to them growled.

"What's it matter to you? Machines aren't supposed to care about what's nice or not."

"Yeah, it's no good." One of the other men added. "Give 'em a brain and they'll start getting ideas. Dangerous business."

"If you ask me, they all should be shut down" the first man said harshly, taking a step towards the Walters. "Much safer that way." Hatchy took a shaky breath and squeezed The Jon's hand.

"The Jon.. I think we should go now.." He tried to hiss, but it came out much louder than he intended.

"Go? Go where? "The third man spoke up. Jon frowned and tried not to look too nervous.

"Just.. Just go. Our big brothers are waiting." The second man furrowed his eyebrows and crossed his arms.

"So there are more of them then?" he asked, glancing at his friends before looking back to the bots.

"And I thought two was bad.." The first one added.

"WE should call the authorities. Figure out what to do from there." The second man chimed in. "These things can't be good news." The men all started talking over each other, trying to figure out what move to make next; none of them took eyes off the Walters for more than a moment.

"Hatchy, we have to do something…" Jon whispered, fidgeting nervously.

"Don't worry, the Jon," Hatchy said with a little nod. "I'll take care of it." Very quietly, Hatchy reached up and popped his hatch open. He quickly reached into the glowing blue portal, rummaged around for a moment, and pulled out... a kazzokaphone? He smiled down at the little instrument and closed his hatch back up. He brought the modified kazoo to his lips and started playing a tone that sounded quite like a funeral song. The group of men stopped arguing to stare at the mustached bot in confusion.

"Um.. Hatchy?" Jon asked, staring down at his brother.

"I know.." Hatchy sighed. "It's not as good kazooed." He shook his head and tossed the kazzokaphone at the little mob. "Come on Jon." He smiled and dragged his golden brother forward, brushing past the men and out of the car. The two ran, trying hard to disregard the yells behind them. Jon let out a little yelp, but Hatchy didn't look back to see if they were being followed as they raced back the way he had come, hopping through car doors as need be.

In a matter of moments, the two were back in the first car, standing at the open doorway. The wind whipped, blowing Jon's curls around as the two stared at the ground that sped by. Jon looked at Hatchy uncertainly.

"Should we-"A loud yell of "hey you, stop!" from a now too familiar voice cut him off. Hatchy looked up with wide eyes and spotted the first man in the doorway to the car. He didn't need any more convincing to make him jump off the train, pulling Jon with him by their still linked hands.

The two tumbled down the grassy hill that the tracks were on, bumping and clanking along the whole way. Their hands came apart at some point of the event, but neither of them was quite certain when exactly. When they came to a stop, they stayed still. Hatchy blinked several times as he stared up at the exceptionally blue sky-had it always been that blue?- before turning to look at Jon. The golden robot stared at him for just a moment before bursting into a fit of giggles.

"That was fun! Let's go again!" Hatchy couldn't help but join in with his brother's laughter.

**AN: oh my gosh guys it's been really long and I'm sorry. I just ended up getting sidetracked with everything and being lazy about writing and everything. Anyway, sorry if anything in the chapter is inaccurate, I know very little about trains and it probably shows... **


End file.
